


Just a Mortal

by RiceQueen



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: Age, Character Death, Like Really Really Squint, Moana - Freeform, Old Friends, demigods and mortals, friends - Freeform, getting old, it's only a pairing if you squint, maui - Freeform, platonic, te fiti - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-03 00:17:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8689204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiceQueen/pseuds/RiceQueen
Summary: Moana contemplates Maui and her life briefly before seeing the Demigod who changed her life for the better.





	

It’s been years she thinks, since she was young enough to sail the seas. Her village is prosperous, every day growing more green and strong beneath the sun. She remembers the days of its youth, when she and her parents brought the village here across the ocean. Teaching them all how to wayfind, to traverse the seas and explore new islands and currents. She remembers how the great sea hawk soared above them, eyeing her people and watching them learn how to once again appreciate the things he had created.

Maui.

Moana rasped out a wavering sigh, leaning on her oar thoughtfully. Those days were long ago. It had been a lifetime since she’d seen the Demigod of the Wind and Sea, and no longer wondered when he would visit the island. She did not blame him, really she didn’t, but she couldn’t help but feel lonely. Since her journey to save Te Fiti, she hadn’t been the same person. Too special, and far too wise for her years. So different from her people who had not faced such peril. There was no one else to understand. To talk to. Moana was utterly alone, surrounded by her people. No longer afraid of monsters, of myths and gods, of death. 

A pain took her, clutching her heart and squeezing tighter than any ropes could pull. Moana gasped and grabbed her chest, trembling in her pain and dropping her oar to the ground as she collapsed to her knees. 

Speaking of.

She did not expect to live much longer, her heart had weakened in her age, and though her body was frail now she had lived a life of vitality and adventure. Her muscles no longer obeyed her, and her breathing had worsened over time until she could not even sail the sea she so loved. Fingers curling into the dirt, tears rolled down her face into the earth as she gasped out in her pain.

“Moana?”

Strong hands, a strong man, lifted her from the ground in one movement, sweeping her up as though she were not but a frond in a storm. Her eyes squeezed shut in the pain, it gradually began to subside, as all these moments did, until she no longer had to dig her nails into the hand which held hers. Opening her eyes, wrinkles deepening in the crooks, she couldn’t help the exuberant smile that bloomed across her face.

“Maui.”

The Demigod looked exactly the same. Still monstrous in form and handsome as ever. His hair silky as the ivory sand on the beaches, though she would never tell him that.

“It is you,” he murmured softly, his features relaxing into something Moana had never seen before. Something that most certainly did not suit him. “And who else would I be?” She responded in kind, still shaking from her hearts' attack on her person. He held her close to his chest with one arm, the other still clutching her hand gently as though she might break. Moana would be lying to herself if she thought it anything but the truth. 

“You’re old.” 

Had she the strength, she might have punched him, but settled for a roll of her eyes, which she wiped with the back of her hand carefully. In her age she had seen many things, and her wisdom had only grown since she'd last seen him. All it took was a look and Maui got the message, a grin breaking out on his features. “Of course I’m old,” Moana grumbled good naturedly, not able to contain her own smile, “I am just a mortal, after all.” That seemed to sober the mood once more, and Maui cradled her in one arm as he leaned down to pick up her oar. 

It’s sailing days were over, worn smooth from years of use. Carved into the palm wood was the story of Moana’s life, something she had decided to do after becoming Chief when her father passed. It detailed her childhood, and her battle across the ocean to free Te Fiti. Maui had his own carving, resting prominently on the handle. In her age, Moana had opted to use it as a cane, since she lacked the strength to use it as she had in her youth. Maui gave it a once over, looking at his own carving and tracing a thumb over it fondly. 

“No kids then?”

She huffed out a laugh, “Like the village could handle more than one of me.” The two chuckled for a moment before Moana answered the question more honestly. “I can’t have children. I tried, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I had the village children to help me through the maternal years.”

“What about your husband?”

“He perished in a storm a great many years ago.”

Maui was taken aback by the casual way with which she spoke about these tragedies, and moved to sit on a fallen palm to look across the ocean, as she had been doing when he found her. He was no fool, there was pain in her voice, but not new and not raw, a scar that had healed and been dealt with. Maui squeezed her hand gently, pulling her further up on his chest so she had a better view of her ocean. 

“I’m sorry for that too.”

“He was a good man, and now a good hawk. Perhaps you’ve met him in your journeys,” she gestured towards a bird in the distance. Not a hawk, Maui knew, but nodded just the same. “I’ll keep my eyes open for any crazy birds. He’d have to be, to marry you.”

Moana snorted, slapping his chest weakly, gazing out at the tide with yearning. “It was mostly political. I’ve only ever loved one man, and it was never really meant to be. I know that now. But young hearts are foolish, aren’t they Maui?”

He looked down at her, all sagging sun-kissed skin and wiry limbs. His mouth twitched in a frown, his heart strings tugging but made no indication that he’d heard her. She knew he did, he didn’t have to. Another pain took her then, more vicious than any before, and Moana gulped at the air and dug her nails into Maui’s skin in an effort to contort herself even smaller than she was. “Moana!” At a loss, Maui simply held her, stroked her gray hair until the moment had passed some minutes later, his own heart beating fast and hard in his chest at seeing her in pain and being unable to help. Tears streaked her face, and Moana knew the next time it happened, it would be the last. She wasn’t meant to make it through another attack.

The sun had started to fade into the horizon, bathing the sea and island in gold light. Barely keeping himself from shaking, Maui continued to run his fingers through Moana’s hair, anything to keep himself from feeling useless.

“Maui?”

“Moana?”

“Take me home.”

He knew she didn’t mean her hut in the center of the village. He knew what she meant, and what she meant to do once there. Now the Demigod really did tremble. Seated as he was, he had no worry of falling, and Moana could see his peril. “Maui,” she whispered kindly, reaching a hand up and holding his face. The man allowed himself the comfort of pressing his cheek to her palm, fully aware that the comfort should not be for him. “It’s alright,” her voice was small, “I promise.” He knew it would be. He did. But he didn’t want it to be this way. 

“I should have returned sooner.”

“You returned when you should have. To see me off.”

“This isn’t why I came back. I came back to see you.”

“And you did.” New tears rolled down her cheeks, and Moana pressed her head as high as she could on his chest, coming to rest beneath his chin. Maui’s eyes were glassy, and he looked up at the sky and beyond into the stars, looking for any way he could prevent the inevitable. He found none.

“Alright.”

Standing took more strength than he remembered, and the light human in his arms weighed more than any mountain he had pulled from the depths. He took the long trail towards the ocean, carrying his fishhook on his back and her oar in one hand, Moana in the other. Her eyes were closed, and he was glad for the reprieve she had given him to let his tears fall in peace. When they got to the beach, he found her canoe had been placed in a tidepool, only just beginning to fill with water as the levels rose. He rested her and her oar on the boat, and picked it up carefully. Once placed in the ocean, he got ready to sail, watching Moana roll to the edge and put her hand in the cool ocean waters.

The wind picked up in the sail, and the pair sailed towards the golden circle of light on the horizon. Wind in his hair and salt on the breeze, Maui never felt more at home, and, he noticed, Moana felt the same. She rested on her stomach, hand trailed behind in the water, hair dancing in the wind and teeth gleaming in a smile so heartfelt his own began to ache. Maui didn’t know exactly when he stopped control of the canoe to just let it drift, but when he did the sky was a blanket of mottled black and navy, speckled with glowing stars. No islands in sight, he sat against the mast with Moana in his lap, looking up at the stars.

“I wonder what I will return as.”

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Maui responded with a croak, “I don’t.”

Moana looked up at him, eyes wide and bright in the pallor of her skin. She jutted her chin out briefly, as though to press him on. 

“A sea turtle.”

She smiled, releasing a deep breath and nestling into the crook of his arm more fully, turning her face towards his chest and smiling. “Suitable.” Another long silence, and every second Maui counted the breathes Moana released, readying himself to wake her when the length between them took too long. “It won’t hurt,” he whispered instead, trying his best to comfort her, though truly it was to comfort himself. Moana pressed a chaste kiss against the skin closest to her, opening her eyes briefly to look at him one more time. “I know.”

Maui wasn’t sure when the gentle rise and fall of her chest stopped. Or when the moon rose to its highest height, or when the sun woke the world. It took a long time for him to look down and see her there, but not truly there. When he did, a last stroke of her hair, and she burst into a million blue lights, swirling about him in a dance he was unfamiliar with, but one that comforted him in a way words could never.

Moana became whole again in spirit, falling deep into the water and pulling together in a whirl of light and becoming, as Maui had predicted, a sea turtle. The great spirit twirled in the water briefly, getting used to this new form. With a last glance upwards, she eagerly swam into the depths of the sea to explore the places she hadn’t as a human. Maui watched, knowing that it wouldn’t be the last time he’d see her and still unwilling to move from the canoe to follow. She had gone somewhere he could not, for there is no rest for Demigod the same as mortals.

He picked up her oar, rolling it in his palms and tracing the images engraved. He promised to memorize them all, and tell the world of Moana, Wayfinder and Friend of the Sea.

**Author's Note:**

> Real quick and all, and I sorta made myself weepy. It isn't beta'd, and I may revisit to edit. Let me know what you think and if you think I should do anymore!


End file.
